Susan McPhail: Championing Inclusivity in Music

A choir where music isn’t just heard – it’s seen and felt. This is the vision of our student Susan, a passionate choir director from South Queensferry, just outside Edinburgh, who is transforming her performances by introducing sign language into her choir.

As a singing teacher for the National Youth Choir of Scotland (NYCOS) and a community choir director, Susan works with both children and adults. She especially enjoys teaching adults who have been discouraged from singing at some point in their lives, believing that singing together is one of the oldest aspects of human culture. With a focus on inclusivity, she is adding a whole new layer of depth to her performances by exploring signed singing with her choirs.

Her journey into British Sign Language (BSL) signed singing began during the pandemic, when Paul Whittaker OBE - an inspirational speaker, musician, performer and workshop leader who is profoundly deaf - delivered an online session for NYCOS. Reflecting on this, Susan says, “I loved the whole idea from the beginning. I'm interested in ways of making music more inclusive, and Paul's very musical and rhythmic interpretations add an extra dimension to songs I thought I knew well”.

Wanting to learn more, Susan joined one of Paul’s online singing choirs. When Paul chose a song that she had previously performed with her own community choir, Ferry Blend, it was the perfect opportunity to bring signed singing into her local group.

Last October, Paul visited a Ferry Blend rehearsal to help the choir members learn the signs to their song. Performing while both singing and signing brought unique challenges. “There are challenges to doing both together” Susan explains, “particularly when the order of the signs doesn’t exactly align with the sung lyrics. BSL grammar works slightly differently from spoken English in order for the signs to best make sense”. Despite these difficulties, Susan was thrilled by the outcome. “I am convinced that once we managed to combine the signs and the singing, we performed better, and the choir made a lovely sound”.

More recently, Ferry Blend enjoyed a full-day workshop with Paul, ending their term on a high note. The choir has fully embraced this new way of performing, and Susan is already excited to incorporate one of the songs from Paul’s workshop into next year’s repertoire. You can view some of the highlights from the workshop below.

Looking ahead, Susan is eager to continue her mission of making music accessible to all. As she delves deeper into her MA studies, she hopes to explore the benefits of signed singing on performance, like what she experienced with her own choir.

Ferry Blend workshop with Paul Whittaker - signed singing compilation